


Magick, Merwolves and (M)Vampires

by sidontrash



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (more stuff tba), Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Flashbacks, Fluff, Humor, M/M, No character hate, Pepper is a good friend, Swearing, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-01 08:17:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18796498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidontrash/pseuds/sidontrash
Summary: "Tony." Pepper just sighs and rubs a hand against her forehead. "He's not a vampire.""Uh, the the rats in the Catacombs that look like empty Capri-Suns say otherwise.""That could be Loki." She shrugs."Strange is more likely to be a vampire than him.""You're just biased.""Maybe they reason why you can't control your magic is you've too busy trying to expose your weird roommate as a vampire for the past seven years?""I-" Tony honestly did not know how to reply to that sentence.____Tony Stark is the Chosen One in the World of Mages. Why? he doesn't know! He can barely use his wand without it backfiring on him, Half the time he just grabs a nearby sword instead, and would rather probably be doing anything else but magic, And he's also busy trying to appease The Mage and stop the attacks on Watford by hunting for the infamous Insidious Humdrum, and on top of that- his very, very annoying roommate Stephen Strange has gone missing. Which means silence in Tony's room. Yay! But Stephen's absence drives Tony (and his friends) insane.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey yall! here's a fic ive had planned since literally August last year, so im finally going to make it! Yay!
> 
> there will be a couple timeskips into the past just for more background detail, but other than that its all good.  
> anyways, follow me on twitter/tumblr for updates! my username on both sites is @Gandalfsoda.  
> for those who haven't read Carry On, think of it this way: Gay Harry Potter. 10/10 would recommend picking it up for a read, as Rainbow Rowell is a great author and it's getting a sequel in September.  
> anyways, enjoy!  
> -paige

In a children’s home, a young boy lies in bed, dozing off. After a couple of minutes, he groans and stretches as he climbs out of the bland blankets and makes his way to his tiny bathroom and mirror. Once there, he cleans up his face a little bit and grabs all of his belongings (which isn’t much) and puts them into a bag. The boy puts on his school uniform and smiles as he leaves the children’s home for the last time.

“Mr. Stark? You have to sign out.” The caretaker from behind the counter calls out. He signs his name on the papers- Anthony Stark, and heads out the door. The Normal lady murmurs something to a coworker about an exquisite boarding school- and doesn’t comprehend why an orphan would go there. Tony, on the other hand is ecstatic to leave the drab home he’s placed in for the summer and return back to his magical school- a summer away from doing magickal things probably doesn’t help his cause of barely being able to use a wand properly, but whatever. It’s like this every year for Tony- go to Watford, fight something, screw up, go to an orphanage for the summer and completely forget how to even hold a wand, rinse and repeat. But this year is his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and he hopes to make it count. Tony Stark hops onto a train, and another one after that, then a cabbie afterwards. You’d think the Mage would place him in the orphanage down the street from the school, but no.

He’d declined the offer Pepper made for him to stay at her place (Pepper being his best friend and was once his girlfriend, but he just didn’t want to stress out her mom with the fact that the ‘greatest mage’ is essentially roommates with her daughter for the summer.) He’s thinking to himself in the cabbie, until the driver with his cigarette and sunglasses on adjusts the mirror suspiciously to get a better look at him. The man is short and stout, and a better look at the reflection shows ugly green skin. Goblin. The cabbie tries to swerve into the sidewalk in the hopes of crashing into something, and Tony is desperately trying to undo his seatbelt and grab his wand out of his bag. It takes a couple of tries but he finally gets a spell to work.

 **“Hell hath no fury!”** He shouts as he shakily holds his wand towards the goblin, and bursts of flames pour out of his wand like a flamethrower. The goblin is attempting to claw him with one hand and drive with the other, but the spell scorched him and he hisses. Tony is too busy panicking to think of any other spells, and screams **“Head over heels!”** Three times. At least one of the spells worked, and the goblin turns to ash, and Tony scrambles to get to the front seat of the car and park it safely.

“Those damn goblins are getting relentless..” he murmurs to himself as he tries his best not to sit in the pile of goblin dust. Because Tony Stark is the world’s “greatest mage”, the goblins have been out to kill him for years to appease their king, and he hasn’t even made it to Watford for his first day of school yet and they’re already trying to kill him. His outfit is scratched up and covered in soot, and he parks the car on the side of the road and just decides to walk the rest of the path down to the Watford gates. Tony looks around to check if anyone is watching, then brushes some of the dirt off of his dirty school uniform. Pepper is sure to yell at him later.

“I’m never leaving the damned sword of Mages at Watford ever again.” He grumbles.

 

Once Tony reaches the gates of Watford, he places a hand on the iron bars- as the only way to open the doors is with the touch of a magical person.

After he walks down the path on the Great Lawn, he reaches the open drawbridge of the Watford inner walls, which is designed almost like a Victorian town and a castle at the same time. First thing he heads to is his room in the Mummer’s house, and he nicks his finger so it bleeds, and the door opens. The room is exactly how it was last year, and Tony sighs as he collapses onto his old and comfortable bed. Nothing could ruin this moment for him, home sweet home.

“Tony!” A familiar feminine voice calls out from the bathroom. Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound like his roommate.

“Pepper!” He jumps up to hug the redhead girl as she walks out of the bathroom. They embrace for a good couple of seconds then let go

“Pepper, how did you get in here? Isn’t there like wards that keep girls out?” He looks rather confused.

“Yes, but i bypassed them. So now I can hang out with you! Also, where is Strange? I thought he’d be here by now.”

Their room is rather huge since it’s on the top floor, so it’s almost like they live in a flat, although Tony would exchange his cozy room for a closet just so he doesn’t have to room with Strange. The Stranges are a very powerful line of wizards, and Steph likes to piss off Tony no matter what he does, and he thinks he’s rather special because his mother was the headmaster of the school.

“I don’t know, he’s always here early to mock me about something.” Tony brushes down his clothing and Pepper gives a concerned look.

“A goblin attack already? They’re getting relentless.” Pepper puts on her ring (most wizards use wands or rings, and there’s even a kid with a magical ankle bracelet and even a boy with a belt buckle, who has to thrust out his pelvis to cast a spell.)

And casts a couple **“Clean as a Whistle!”** Onto Tony.

“Maybe you should take a shower instead?” She asks.

“No, I’ll be fine.” Tony dodges her question and she grumbles.

“Anyways, we’ve got to go down and meet up with our friends in the dining hall- are you ready or will I meet you down there?” Pepper opens the door and he follows behind her.

“I still wonder where Strange went, maybe he’s sick.” She sighs. Back when Tony and Pepper were dating, Stephen has tried to get with her in the Wavering Wood.  If he as allowed to punch his roommate, Tony would. But the Crucible that selected them together has a oath that you cannot hurt your roommate. Tony knew a guy who got thrown out of the school for slapping his roommate and could never enter the school again- the gate refused. Tony once attempted to throw a book at Stephen during the 5th year, and his hand froze up for 3 days.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’ll show up.” Tony says in a emotionless voice. Stephen is nice to Pepper, and she’s always liked him for that. If only Pepper could understand how annoying and arrogant he really is.

They walk down the stairs of the Mummer’s House and head outside towards the Dining Hall. once they reach it- most of their friends are waiting there- talking and studying. Bruce Banner looks up from his book and beckons them to come over with a wave. They are greeted with numerous hellos and hiyas from their friend group, which consists of Bruce, the incredibly smart boy who’s the son of a high-ranking mage, Thor, a happy-go-lucky jock who also has a passion for theatre arts and is the middle child of Odin, a retired headmaster of Watford. Bucky is friends with Steve and Sam, who is also part of the group, but he likes to help out the goatherd Ebb (Tony likes to talk with them both to relieve stress.) Steve is your average artsy jock on the football team, and Sam is too busy fighting with Bucky to do any extracurricular activities besides football, of course. Rhodey, Tony’s other best friend who he wishes the dumbass Crucible assigned him as his roommate. And Natasha is also part of the group, but she isn’t here yet, and that’s a shame. Pepper and Tony pull up some chairs and sit down with their friends.

“Hey Pep, seems you’ve been able to find the chosen one.” Steve murmurs as he’s too busy doodling the merwolves that live in Watford’s moat. Tony hates it when his friends call him the chosen one, as he has no clue why he was chosen. The Mage just picked him up one day when he was around eleven after he accidentally set fire to his orphanage with his first burst of magic. It’s not his fault though, he was eleven! At least nobody died. Nobody has been orphaned in the magic community, or raised by Normals. “Magic is too precious of a source.” Pepper once told him. “We’d risk exposing our secrets to the world.” Although, you’d think the chosen one would be the best at magic as everyone believes, but Pepper once witnessed him cast a **“Hair of the Dog”** on himself by holding his wand backwards, and it took many **“As you were!”** cancellation spells to get rid of all the dog hair his body was covered in.

“We were just talking about how we haven’t seen Tony’s roommate yet.” As soon as Pepper mentions Tony’s roommate, almost everyone internally rolls their eyes. Tony can tell by the looks on their faces.

“He’s probably somewheres, You know ever since you proclaimed him your ‘arch-nemesis snarky boy’ back in the 3rd year,” Bucky makes a quoting sign with his hands. “You’ve never shut up about him.”

“You got me there.” Tony points. “Besides, it was Pepper who brought him up, not me. I am a changed man this year. It’s our last year, and i will not be spending it trying to torment my roommate, He who must not be named, In various different ways.” Tony shrugs as Pepper pats him on the shoulders.

“Oh sweetie. We know you’re terrible at lying.”

“Dude, you’ve been here for twenty seconds and you’re already talking about Stephen. Lord, imma whoop your ass if you don’t shut up about him by Christmas.” Rhodey just sighs and pulls out a book of spells.

“Also, what happened Tony? You look like you ran into a couple trees on the way here.” Steve looks at Tony’s ripped blaze, a look of concern plastered on his face.

“Another goblin after the greatest mage, I guess.” Tony sighs. He has no clue what’s with these dumbass goblins, because last time he checked- Tony can barely use his wand properly, so today was quite lucky. He just prefers to use his sword (which he left at Watford, oopsies.)

“Ah, Goblins. Those little meddling creatures are hated amongst the Odinsons. Always trying to steal our golden heirlooms. Luckily my mischievous sister made a spell to kill goblins for her 7th year spell project- I think she got an A.” Thor smiles as he retells his story of the day. Honestly, After meeting Thor’s family, he’s like a golden retriever in a family of black cats.

“My dear brother once used her goblin spell on me. I smelt like burnt ash for a week, the little weasel.” Thor looks down and grimaces, and honestly thinking of Loki makes Tony grimace too. Little sixth year brat looks exactly like a younger Tommy Wiseau.

“Anyways, do you know when classes start?” Sam pipes up in a chance to change the conversation.

“Oh! They should start next week, so everyone can settle in, especially the tiny first-years. They’re so sweet.” Bruce looks up from his book and rests it on the table.   
“Perfect. A whole week of relaxation for Mister Stark right here.” Tony points his two thumbs at himself.

“Don’t relax too much, you never know when Stephen “Totally a vampire” Strange will come out from under your bed and bite you. Rhodey scoffs, Causing Sam to wheeze while Bucky gives him a weird look.

“Sam, you sound like a dying donkey.” Bucky has a displeased look on his face.

“Why do you look like one, Buck? You’ve even got the greasy hair-“

“Okay, im completely over the ‘my roommate is a vampire’ phase! Even if he’s pale, tall, and has freakish eyes.” Tony interrupts and definitely is not over the roommate is a vampire phase. He’s watched that guy in the Wavering Wood and the Catacombs. Lat year, while exploring the Woods for the Insidious Humdrum, the dumbest fucking name a terrifying monster could have- Tony witnessed Stephen doing some weird broody shit in the forest. He’s also found some dried up rats in the Catacombs, like someone stuck a straw in them like a Capri-Sun and sucked out all of the blood. Although maybe Thor’s brother is more likely to be a vampire.

After zoning out, Tony just tells everyone he’ll make his was back up to his room, where his friends wave at him goodbye, and Pepper follows along (thankfully, he just wanted to talk one on one with her about the Humdrum.)

Ever since Tony has been to Watford, a sinister force called the Insidious Humdrum has been sending attacks of dark creatures to the school. And after the latest one, where he sent a chimera back in June, he’d never seen Pepper so visibly upset. And after all that, the Mage just whisked him away to another orphanage.

“What are you thinking about, you’ve got that look on your face.” Pepper asks as they walk back towards the football field, where they sit on the benches. Football hasn’t started yet, so there’s nobody on the field.

“I was thinking about the Chimera attack, and the Humdrum. We were so close to getting a lead on this monster, and the Mage just dismissed us as usual.” Tony sighs as he rests his head in the palm of his hand.

“We’ll get a lead on him soon, Tony. don’t worry.” Pepper rests her head on my shoulder.

“I know you don’t like him, but you have got to admit when the Chimera attacked, Stephen was a valued fighter. Considering all you like to use is your sword.” Pepper giggles. Tony scowls as he knows she’s right. Strange is a very powerful magic user, and he probably wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for him. Can’t change the fact that he’s an asshole, though.

“Remember what the Mage said?” She looks up at me and I nod yes.

“The Insidious Humdrum is the greatest threat the World of Mages has ever seen, bla bla bla. Greatest threat, greatest hope I know.” Why the Mage would tell this to an 11 year old Tony Stark this, he doesn’t know. All he wanted to do at that age was watch the Mage do another quick magic trick, like making a book open itself again.

"Anyways, I'll leave you be. See you in Magic History class tomorrow!" Pepper pats him on the shoulder and walks down the bleachers. 

Fuck the Humdrum. he just wants to enjoy his last year. 

____

 

Everyone is running away from the football field in fear. Tony looks around at all the screaming students in confusion, then towards the creature on the grass ahead of him. He can barely think between the screaming and the crying.

“Stark!” Someone calls out. It’s Stephen Strange, ebony black wand in hand. Pepper and Tony’s other friends are busy trying to get everyone away from the creature.

“Unleash your fucking powers!” Stephen snarls. Of course, Tony has never been able to control his bursts, but Stephen’s yelling probably won’t help. He just pulls out the Sword of Mages and runs towards the chimera.

“You fucking psychopath!” Stephen yells from behind him, trying to catch up. **“Hurry up!”** He yells and suddenly he’s right next to Tony.

The chimera looks at Tony with it’s lion head, and Stephen with the goat head. The snake tail tries to bite them as the lion mauls the ground in front of them. A quick and clean slash to the mane causes the monster to yield, before lunging back at them.

 **“Back off!”** Stephen points his wand at the Chimera, and his magic is barely touching the creature. In a surge of adrenaline, Tony grabs his wand, waking it in circles in an attempt to cast a spell. “God damn it Stark! You will be the death of me! **“Hit the floor!”** Stephen yells, and the creature crumbles to the ground, before slowly getting up and roaring. The goat head rushes to headbutt Stephen, and at this point Tony is sweating.

“Work you damned wand, work!” He points it at the lion. “Bend over backwards..” he tries to cast a spell. damnit, why is his magic so flakey?!

“RUN!” He calls out, and the two boys bolt away from the Chimera.

“Stark, we’re going to need you to do something here! Just pretend you’re pulling a trigger. Close your eyes and light a match.” Stephen hisses.

“What?” Tony is too busy running away from this ten foot tall Frankenstein of zoo animals.

“That’s what my sister would tell me! Light a match inside your heart, then blow on the tinder!” The two keep running from the Chimera in the opposite direction of the school, and eventually after Stephen finishes yelling at Tony, they awake in a darkened pit with no Chimera in sight, almost as if it was incinerated.

“Merlin, Stark. If only you could have done this earlier.” Everything in the pit is covered with ash, including the two of us.

“I’m sorry, I was too busy focusing on how to run away from the giant death monster to wave my little magic wand and bippity boppity boo our way out of this situation! Tony sits up, then sighs as he lies back down and closes his eyes.

“I think you’ve singed off my eyebrows.” Stephen scoffs as he brushes the dirt off of his body.

“Suck it, Edward.” Tony pats the ground looking for the Sword of Mages and eventually finds it.

They both stand up and wince in pain. Stephen is clearly overreacting, as his hair looks completely normal.

“I’m sure you’d be a much better chosen one if you could properly hold a wand, Stark. Potts somehow failed to reach you that.” Stephen hisses, and Tony just rolls his eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry that you aren’t the chosen one, Stephen. Because Crowley knows you deserve it.” He says in a increasingly pitched voice.

Stephen just eyes him down, before adjusting the collar of his shirt and walking off, flicking the dirt off his pale hand onto the ground.

“Kinda wish he disappeared too with the mutated cat.” Tony says to himself once Stephen’s out of hearing range.

"Hopefully everyone is up for a celebratory trip to Burger King."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the average life at watford- gossip, plotting and studying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhh so i just re-read the beginning of carry on and they don't start their classes until after the big welcome back picnic on the great lawn so i changed it so classes start a week from the first day okay
> 
> Also my primary source of writing is on my phone so there may be autocorrect typos so I am sorry in advance!

The fifth day back at Watford is mostly just everyone settling in and getting used to their schedules. After Tony wakes up, still with no roommate in sight, he makes his way down to the Dining hall once again to hang out with Pepper and Rhodey. 

"Hey." He says. "Where's the rest of the crew?"

"Off doing their own thing, mostly. i don't hear any yelling so Sam and Bucky might still be asleep. Steve woke up early for a morning jog and he forgot to turn off the lights in our room." Rhodey is incredibly lucky to have Steve as his roommate, why did he get screwed over?

"Well, i was thinking today that i will go and talk to the Mage..." Tony starts up before his friends interrupt him. 

"What? Why! The Mage has been ignoring you all summer, Tony. Fuck the mage, he's holding back information about the Humdrum. Who for all we know, could be anywhere out doing evil things." Pepper sighs. 

"This is why i propose another investigation through the Wavering Wood." Tony's friends all groan. 

"Yeah, i get that. Fuck the Wavering Wood. That place literally sucks. all the Dryads in there hate me because they think ill set fire to the forest. Which is perfectly reasonable, by the way." The three of them nod together. 

"Anyways, if we aren't hunting for the Humdrum, I have three other ideas. One, we can go piss off the Merwolves. Two, we can go visit Ebb. Three, I haven't thought of yet. Oh, maybe it's to eat as much beef jerky packets as the vending machines supply." He points a finger to his head like he's some sort of genius, which he kind of is, considering him and Strange were always competing for the highest grades in the class.  

"I only like the second idea, but do whatever, i guess.” Rhodey sighs. 

Tony just decides to chow down on a couple of scones and beef jerky- man, he really forgot how good the food is here! While he listens to his friends stories. Pepper was telling them about how apparently there’s a saying if you don’t find a your true love at Watford, you’ll die alone. 

“That’sa-load of horseshit.” Tony says in between bites of his scone. “True love? Really? What are we, eight?” 

“You’re just upset we broke up because you’re going to die alone now.” That’s fair, but they really are better as friends.

“Well, guess we’re all going down together, ladies.” Rhodey snorts. 

“Honestly bet ten dollars Odinson will ask our Banner by the end of the year. Those two have a... thing. Y’know.” Tony shrugs. 

“Yeah, and you’ll probably end up with who, I wonder?” Rhodey raises a brow and has a shit-eating grin on his face, which causes Tony to almost choke on a strip of jerky. 

“He’s probably dead, so suck it Rhodey.” 

“Well, my parents met at Watford, and they’re married now.” Pepper pipes up, raising a finger into the air. 

“Can’t relate.” Tony scoffs. Maybe his parents did meet at Watford. When he was younger, Tony always imagined his mom to be a famous model and his dad to be a rich football player, and they’d show up one day and take him home. He was really young when he thought of this, but now that he’s almost eighteen (he thinks) they’re probably not going to swoop him up soon. 

“Tony, you should quit with the self-deprecating orphan jokes. They aren’t healthy.” Pepper rests a hand on his shoulder. He’s going to be slapped for this comment, but he’ll do it anyway. 

“What’re you going to do? Tell my parents?” 

“You’re lucky I love you, Tony. Otherwise I would have fed you to a dragon by now.” Rhodey gestures cutting off his head with a finger, then points it at him. 

“Fine, fine.” Tony raises his hands in defeat. “I’ll stop. For realzies.”

Later that day, Tony decides to head towards the goatherd’s shack. He’s always liked to talk with Ebb, as she’s a real sweetheart. Plus sometimes Bucky and Sam stop by for a visit too. 

“Ahoy Tony! Welcome back.” Ebb gives him a soft and meaningful smile. 

“Hey Ebb. How’s the goats hanging?”

”Oh, they’re doing just fine. Tea?” She gets up from her recliner to make herself a cup. 

“No, I don’t drink tea. Just wanted to stop by for a quick visit.” 

“That’s good, I was hoping to hear from you again.” She sniffles. Ebb is a bit sniffily and a bit of a cryer, but she’s so sweet to everyone and Tony would probably hurt anyone who makes fun of her. 

Afterwards, he helps her with the goats and with making lunch. They chat a bit about how a goat of hers ate through a sweater, an old shoe and other things that goats will eat (“Goats can digest almost anything, Tony.”) before he takes off.

Later that night, all of his friends go to the big welcome picnic on the Great Lawn. Tony and his friends are reminiscing about all the weird things that hasn’t happened at the school, like the time Thor’s older sister Hela took Tony’s sword out of his hands to beat up an attacking dragon, and the time when Bucky once trained a goat to headbutt Sam on command with a spell. Sam did not like that story. Eventually the conversation changes to the time they encountered the Insidious Humdrum last year in November. 

“It was freakish, as he looks exactly like an eleven year old tony!” Natasha laughs. She arrived today, and Tony is grateful to see her. Apparently she went over to America to visit some friends, and was telling everyone about it. “It’s a popular hotspot for Normals to live, they’re all so strange.” 

“Yeah, it’s weird watching your past self try to kill you.” Tony scratches the back of his neck. 

“An eleven year old Steve wouldn’t be able to reach seventeen year old Steve’s neck to strangle him.” Sam elbows the frowning blonde. 

“Hah, true. Eleven year old me would wonder why my hair is so long and luscious.” Bucky flicks his hair backwards and gets a laugh from everyone.

“Yeah, I think eleven year old me could still clock any one of yall’s out. Except for Thor, he’s too nice to be beaten up. I would pay money to watch younger me try to fight older Bucky, though.” Sam  adds and Thor smiles back at him.

“I think Bucky still wouldn’t win.” Pepper giggles.

“You are all fake hoes I tell you. Fake hoes.” Bucky crosses his arms and the whole group laughs.

“I think Bucky would win, to be honest. Although eleven year old Tony still is the worst one it can be, all he did was cause things to explode.” Bruce adds. 

“Yeah, he hasn’t changed much.” Rhodey sighs, and Tony elbows him.  

____

It was a cold November afternoon for Tony. He was studying in his dorm, Strange busy reading on his bed. The two both had a scowl on their faces as they co-exist in the same room. All of a sudden, a bird flies at their window and is chirping violently. As Stephen is closer to the window, he growls as the taller boy stands up and opens the window. 

“Stephen! It’s me, Rhodey!” The bird chirps. 

“What the fuck, when did you turn into a bird?” Tony closes his textbook and runs over to the windowsill. 

“He’s possessing it, dumbass.” Stephen makes an exasperated guesture. 

“Yeah, I am. Anyways, we kind of need your guy’s help in the Wavering Wood. We’ve heard rumours of a powerful entity wandering the woods. We think it’s a vampire lord.” The two boys stiffen at that comment. 

“Uh huh. Be right down there.” ATony grabs a necklace with a cross on it- gift from the Mage, warded against vampires, and heads out the door. The bird Rhodey is possessing flies off. 

“Wait.” Stephen grabs a dark black jacket and does up the zipper, grabbing his wand. 

“I’ll come.” 

“No, you won’t.” Tony huffs. 

“Anthony.” Stephen stares directly at him. Woah there Mister, he’s only referred to him as Stark their entire career as roommates, so he might not be kidding. 

“This is very important to me, I need to come.” 

“Why?” 

“I would never tell you in a million years, Stark.” Back to Stark. Okay. Stephen rushes out the door with wand in hand, and all Tony does is aimlessly follow around. 

At the woods, Pepper, Rhodey, Natasha, Thor and his brother Loki are there waiting for them. 

“Ladies, Gentlemen.” Stephen calls out. Get a load of this guy. 

“You brought along a friend, how lovely.” Rhodey sighs. 

“Rhodes, I am surprised you would rather have a Mage who can’t cast even the simplest of spells over me, a pureblood Strange.” 

“And I am Odinson, and you don’t see me bragging about being a child of a headmaster, Stephen. Let’s not waste our time.” Loki pulls out his sword and leads the way into the woods. 

“So, a Vampire Lord?” Tony tries to make conversation as they travel through the woods. Hopefully they can get done with this before the Mage shows up or the Drawbridge into Watford closes. 

“We don’t know. It’s just an assumption, but the Dryads have been complaining about an evil energy.” Pepper trudges through the mud carefully. 

“I hope it’s not a vampire lord. I left my hunting axe in my room.” Thor sighs. 

“I’m not surprised that you have a hunting axe.” Natasha is scamming around the area with her wand in hand, looking for unusual activity.

After they walk through the wood for what seems like forever, they hear footsteps behind them, and they definitely aren’t the Dyrads who live in this wood.

All of them freeze out of shock, even Stephen. Tony’s jaw might just smack the floor. 

Standing there is an eleven year old... Tony. He’s wearing a worn out black shirt and shorts, holding a red and yellow toy of some sorts, which he keeps bouncing in his hand. Younger Tony seems unable to speak, but his silence is speaking louder than words. 

“Are you.. me?” Tony’s face is ghastly pale. 

The boy nods, tossing the ball in the air. 

“Who are you, really?” The boy points at Tony, then back at himself. So, he is a younger, mute Tony. He’s definitely not a vampire lord, those speak. Sometimes. 

“The Humdrum?” Stephen calls out. Now the little boy nods with a grin that would be a lot more cute if he wasn’t busy looking at his tiny weirdass clone.

Fuck it, Tony's about to book it. cya later everyone, it's been a nice ride. After that, They all turn around to see a large werewolf growl at them. 

“Huh. So it wasn’t a Vampire after all.” Tony remarks. He grabs his sword out and begins to slash at it, while his friends (and Stephen) cast combat spells to keep it at bay. The thing won’t budge, and they’re all really scared to get bitten by one of them. Tony, focus! He thinks to himself. Any time now... cast a spell please! 

 **“Run for your life!”** He shouts, pointing his his wand at the beast.  After this, the Werewolf stops trying to chew their heads off and runs as quickly as it can in the other direction. 

“Stark casted a spell. That’s new.” Strange scoffs. 

“Can it, buddy. Alright Humdrum, is that the best you’v-“ Tony turns around to see nothing standing there. No miniature versions of himself or anything. 

“I think I just hallucinated everything. I’ve got to tell the Mage about this.” Tony paces back and forth. 

“Relax, Good friend Stark. We are all fine, and I say we go to bed. I am rather tired after that boy scared me out of my skin. I also will never recover from this experience.” Thor puts away his axe into his backpack. 

“That’s enough of this forest for the night. If I stay in here any longer, I’ll go mad.” Loki flicks his hair and walks back to where they came from. 

“Agreed.” The rest of them say. 

____

On the first day of class Tony wakes up in his room, and Stephen still isn’t here. Huh. Oh well! Sucks to suck, Strange! 

He goes through his dresser and looks for a clean school uniform, and changes from his pyjamas. The boy goes to his bathroom to style his hair with a comb that’s rested there since last June, so hopefully there’s no dust in his hair. 

He gives himself a smile once it looks presentable, and grabs a couple of books he’ll need for some of his classes- Mathematics, Studies of the Arcana, and Latin. 

Tony’s a wonderful student in anything that doesn’t involve casting spells himself, with very high scores that the Mage applauds him for. 

Looking at his seventh-year schedule, Tony’s first class is Latin, and luckily for him Rhodey, Sam and Bucky are in that class. The teacher will hate them by the end of the week. 

Tony struts over to Rhodey’s room on the second floor and knocks on the door. After a second, Rhodey opens the door, with his roommate Steve behind him. 

“Hiya Tony!” Steve waves. “Are you ready for Latin?” Steve’s in his class too? Sweet. 

“Yeah! So ready to watch Sam and Bucky hijack eachother’s tests for answers.” All three boys laugh. 

“Come in, Tones.” Rhodey points a hand out to his bed, where Tony sits down and waits for the other boys to finish getting ready. 

“Rhodey, where’d you put my blazer?” Steve is searching through his drawer rather frantically. 

“It should be there, unless you left it in the laundry room again.” Rhodey shakes his head and sighs, causing Tony to chuckle. 

“We’ll meet you in class Steve, or you can just wear no blazer and just your dress-shirt. I’m sure the girls in the class would love that.” 

“Who wouldn’t love Cap’s arm muscles? I’m still surprised he’s single.” Tony winks at an exasperated Steve. 

“Okay, you guys can leave now, I swear you two are so annoying.” Steve sighs. Rhodey and Tony share a laugh and pick up their books and walk out of the room. 

Mad they leave the Mummers house, they make their way to their classroom. It’s on the first floor of the main building, and has a direct view of the White Chapel through the window. 

Rhodey and Tony sit down in desks next to eachother, and watch all the kids in their class slowly flock in, like Scott Lang with his magic belt buckle and Wong, one of Stephen’s friends, a very powerful mage (and kind of scary.) Gamora and her sister Nebula are also in this class, and Nebula gives a wave to Tony, who waves back in response. She was a good friend of his in their mathematics class. A sixth year is actually in their class, it’s the chirpy Peter Parker. 

“Hiya Mister Stark!” Peter sits down in the desk in front of Tony. Unlike the other younger students who avoided talking to the chosen one out of fear, an 11 year old Parker charmed Tony’s 2nd year heart. He looks half his age, but the kid is so loveable and cute that everyone loves to talk with him. 

“Hey, Underoos! Good to see you.” He pats Peter on the shoulder. 

 A couple other students that Tony doesn’t know enter the class, and finally Steve shows up in a hurry with Bucky and Sam. They sit nearby at the back of the class and the teacher stands up. 

“Hello. I’m Mr Minotaur and I will be your Latin teacher this year.” Me Minotaur is exactly like his name- a bipedal bull man. He was added to the staff when the Mage took over, as Beverly Strange wasn’t so keen on letting in non-humans as students and teachers into Watford. 

Latin is mostly a refresher from last year’s course, where they practice their speech by talking amongst eachother in Latin and working on a few sheets to remember verbs and all that. 

After Latin, Tony goes to his magikal history class, his mathematics, English and Political Sciences. He’s rather drained out by the end of his classes and goes and grabs a lunch of beef jerky and a cheeseburger, much to the dismay of his friends. 

“Tony, all you eat is beef jerky, cheese burgers, and cherry scones for breakfast.” Bucky eyes Tony’s lunch with concern. 

“And yet I am still the tiniest one here. I’ve got the fastest metabolism in the old west.” One of the first things Tony asked the Mage at eleven years old was “If magic is real, does that mean cowboys are too?!” It was with great joy that he received the news that cowboys are indeed real. 

“I think that title belongs to me, but okay.” Bruce pushes his glasses back to make him seem more smarter than he already is, and Thor laughs at his comment and pats him on the shoulder. 

“Yes! Tony and Bruce are very teeny weeny. We need a spell to increase their height to eight feet.” Thor is picking through a salad and points his fork around at everyone. 

“Why don’t we just shrink em more?” Sam asks.

”I’ll shrink you.” Bucky eyes him, and Sam looks too visibly confused to answer.

”good for you I guess? Barnes, I’m sorry but you’re on the next level of crazy.” 

“Ugh, Men.” Natasha sighs. “Tell me about it!” Pepper and her share a laugh. 

“Now you know how I feel, Nat.” Steve points his head towards a bickering Bucky and Sam. Rhodey offers his sympathy. Everyone is chatting and having a good time, and later that night after supper Tony heads to his room to get ready for bed. 

Mad he slips under the covers, he looks at the empty bed beside him and frowns. He can’t possibly miss arguing with Strange? But that was his biggest pastime! 

“He’ll come back.” Tony tells himself as he scrunches up to find a comfortable sleeping position, and entering a dreamless sleep.


End file.
